Guy W. Farmer: What to do with the Gitmo detainees?

Now that President Obama has ordered the Defense Department to close the controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, what is he going to do with the 241 suspected terrorists who are still detained there?

We received a partial answer to that vital national security question on Wednesday when a federal magistrate ruled that accused al-Qaida "sleeper" agent Ali Saleh al-Marri was a danger to the community and should be locked up until he can be tried in federal court on terror charges.

This is a priority national security issue because many "Gitmo" detainees are hard-core terrorists who want to kill as many Americans as possible. Unfortunately, Obama decided to close the prison before he knew what he was going to do with the prisoners, and in so doing he confirmed the fears of those who think he's soft on defense and national security. I hope that's not the case.

Earlier this month the Obama administration abandoned the term "enemy combatant." So who are those Gitmo detainees? Misunderstood "freedom fighters?" Give me a break! We knew what was coming when Obama downplayed the War on Terror, refusing to use former President Bush's terminology for what we're doing to protect ourselves at home and aboard; however, if it isn't a war on terror and terrorism, what is it?

The Defense Intelligence Agency has reported that 61 of the 520 ex-detainees who were previously released from Gitmo have rejoined terrorist organizations and returned to target U.S. troops on battlefields throughout the Middle East. Other reliable sources believe that the number of ex-detainees who have returned to terrorism is much higher. A senior intelligence official told "Human Events" that at least 102 former Gitmo detainees are actively involved in terrorism. The neo-conservative "Weekly Standard" recently named some of them and detailed their activities as follows:

- Said Ali al-Shihri, who spent several months in a Saudi jihad rehabilitation program is now the deputy leader of al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, which bombed the American Embassy in Sana'a last September in a terrorist attack that killed 13 civilians and six terrorists.

- Mohammed Naim Farouq, who was released from Gitmo in 2003, is listed by the DIA as one of the 20 most wanted terrorists operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

- Another ex-Gitmo detainee, Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti, blew himself up in Mosul, Iraq, last April, killing 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounding dozens more.

- Ibrahim Bin Shakaran and Mohammed Bin Ahmad Mizouz, who were released from GItmo in 2004, were convicted of being top recruiters for al-Qaida in Iraq in 2007.

And that's just the tip of the terrorist iceberg. So I return to my original question: What is the Obama administration going to do with those hard-core terrorists? I fear that the answer is, "We don't know." Perhaps we could ask the good citizens of Ely whether they would want anti-American terrorists to be transferred to the maximum security prison in that small, isolated eastern Nevada town.

Our foreign allies don't want them either. The New York Times last week revealed that the Europeans are having second thoughts about accepting Gitmo prisoners. "Several European leaders have emphasized that they can make no firm commitments until they are given complete details on the prisoners," the Times reported, adding that the Europeans want to know exactly what would be required of them and whether the United States will accept Gitmo prisoners, which the Bush administration declined to do (wisely, in my opinion).

Obama administration officials say some 60 of the remaining 241 detainees who cannot be sent to their home countries could be resettled in Europe, the Times continued. But the Europeans say that plan raises many questions and Germany's interior minister has suggested that Gitmo prisoners who pose no significant security risk should be resettled in the United States. Why not? That's another good question for Obama and Congress.

- Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.